Archive for 'Mining'

The ruins of the United Comstock Merger Mill at American Flat were demolished in late 2014. The virtual-reality tour of this vanished corner of Comstock history was photographed from August to December of 2014.

Tonopah’s Central Nevada Museum, founded in 1981 by the Central Nevada Historical Society, features an outdoor exhibit which includes an old west town where visitors can explore miners’ cabins, a saloon, a blacksmith shop, the railroad yard.

In 1876 the mining district of Ward was the largest town in White Pine County. The Ward ores required the high burning temperature of charcoal for milling, prompting the construction of the charcoal ovens in the mid 1870s.

In 1902 the discovery of an immense source of copper ore lead to the founding of Ruth, a company town just west of Ely in White Pine County. Its mining boom rivaled the bonanzas of precious metals on the western side of the state.

When gushing hot water threatened the production of the ever-deepening Virginia City mines, bonanza-era entrepreneur Adolph Sutro offered an audacious solution. He would build a tunnel from Dayton up to the Comstock’s mines.

With its riches first located in1859, the Chollar Mine (later the Chollar-Potosi) was one of the leading producers on the Comstock. Over the next 80 years, miners blasted and carted out some $17 million in gold and silver.

Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park is at 7,000 feet on the western slope of central Nevada’s Shoshone mountain range. Berlin saw its heyday in 1908, diminishing to nothing by 1911. The total production of the Berlin mine was estimated to have been $849,000.